My father’s glare is one he’s perfected since my childhood, and I shift in my seat. “I would ask for more information, but I don’t have a lot of time. And there is news we need to discuss.”
My attention focuses. “Do you have an update on the Fusco situation?”
He looks grim, but he nods. “Nicoletta Fusco was a hit ordered by Joseph Corvo.”
It takes a moment for the words to sink in. Caterina’s father. The supposed leader of all five families ordered a hit on a young girl. “But… why?”
It’s a move I might have expected from the Asante side. But the Corvos… no, I wouldn’t have expected it from them.
My father looks tired. Dark circles sit underneath his eyes. “There is movement, Dante. People are talking about Joseph Corvo. We’re losing power and have been for a while. Our grip in North America is weakening by the year. Law enforcement is becoming more of an annoyance. The feds are cracking down everywhere, cutting off revenue streams. There was… some discussion over whether he remains the right man for thecapo dei capirole. We also heard whispers of some more… unsavory dealings, being made by one of his men. Apparently the rumors were true. As Carlo Fusco has now discovered, to his loss.”
He sounds aggrieved, and I don’t blame him. My father and Carlo are fairly close. Similar ideals, both of them passionate enough to talk for hours. Ideals that have never quite fitted with Joseph Corvo’s old-school vision for the Cosa Nostra.
Concerned, I lean forwards. “If this is a warning, have you put safeguards in place?”
My father purses his lips. “I have no daughters. No wife for him to concern himself with. But I have you. I want you to be careful.”
His words are matter of fact, but I can hear the pain underneath. He never remarried after losing my mother in childbirth with my youngest sister.
Two graves for us to visit on holidays. A family cleaved apart.
“I will be careful,” I promise.
“Good.” His smile is wan. “I can’t lose you too.”
My thoughts turn to somebody else. “How have the Fuscos reacted?”
“Badly. Corvo has made a severe miscalculation. The Fuscos are ready for war, Dante. And I don’t blame them. What happened to Nicoletta… it was a massacre. A violation. There was nothing honorable about it.”
He watches me. My father and I are close, closer than most of the other heirs with their own dons, their own fathers. He waits for me to put the pieces together.
“Caterina,” I breathe. “They’re going after Cat.”
He nods reluctantly. “Carlos is angry, but Giovanni is beyond reckoning with. And as an heir, Caterina is seen as fair game, Dante.”
Fuck.Fuck.
“And if war comes?” I ask, dread tightening my throat. “Which side will we stand on?”
I already know the answer.
“The right one.” My father meets my eyes. “I will not stand with a man who butchers the innocent, Dante. Our world is violent enough without that added horror. No matter the reason. I’m sorry.”
Meaning that at some point, Cat and I will be on opposite sides. Enemies in truth, and not just in sly, double-edged bickering that ends with us wrapped up in each other.
It means I’m going to lose her.
“Think it over,” my father says gently. “I understand more than you might think, Dante. But I cannot – and will not - compromise our principles for the sake of one woman. Caterina has her own choices to make. Whatever she may be to you, she is an heir first. We must treat her as one.”
And she will follow her father. Loyalty is the core of who we are. Whosheis.
The beating of my heart speeds up to a rapid, pulsating rhythm. “I need to go.”
“I don’t need to remind you to keep our business to yourself.” The fatherly concern is replaced by the familiar don. I have no reservations that my father isn’t as savage as the rest of them when it comes to business. “But be careful, son. These are dangerous times.”
As the screen goes dark, I take a deep breath. First one, then another.
Until my heart settles. Until there’s nothing showing of the panic settling into my body, sinking cold claws into me.
